


A New Experience

by TheDoctorIsIcecube



Series: Living in this World [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Activism, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Elves, M/M, Mage Hawke - Freeform, Mages, University Activism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 21:02:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9921995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorIsIcecube/pseuds/TheDoctorIsIcecube
Summary: Arelos sort of knew that if he went to the magic society for his university, he'd be disappointed by the lack of diversity and the amount of people who would be self-centred about mage issues. What he didn't expect, however, was for a man from Tevinter to walk in and change his life forever.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is technically the first in a series, a prequel of sorts to the other fic I'm writing, but it will work entirely as a stand alone fic. I just really liked the universe I created for that one and decided to write more. There's ALSO a fic that runs parallel (ish, I guess it's a companion fic) to the second one in this series in the works, that one focusing on Anders.

Arelos had known from the outset that doing this was a mistake. He hadn't done this in the first year because he was too scared, too intimidated by all the people and the consequences if people decided what he was doing was dangerous. It was scary, and now he knew why he'd thought the better of it the year before. 

Everyone else in the mage society was human. This was not what he'd hoped for, even though it was exactly what he had expected. And they were the sort of humans who very obviously didn't take kindly to an elf in their midst, which was just lovely. He wanted to say something, address the almost literal elephant (he'd had that one before) in the room, but he knew that if he did then someone would say something that would make him want to leave. They'd say something about how he didn't have to point it out, but he did. He did. It wasn't like they weren't all already pointing it out behind his back, anyway. Humans were all the damn same when it came to his people. Hypocritical and prejudiced. Arelos hated it.

"Okay!" The person sitting at the head of the table said, clapping his hands together. Arelos recognised him from the society fair and he was pretty sure he'd seen him around last year. "Not quite the turnout I'd hoped for, but it goes how it goes." He straightened up in his seat (three seats away from everyone else, not by choice- he'd sat next to someone originally, and the person had moved away) and hoped that whatever else the person in charge said would be mildly interesting.

"Could you there at the back come a little closer?" He asked with a smile towards him. Arelos shifted awkwardly and picked up his coat to move next to someone else. They shifted in their seat slightly, but to their credit they didn't move. "Thanks. I didn't want to raise my voice too much in case the Templars hear we're meeting in numbers greater than two in a public place."

Alright, that was a little funny. Arelos managed a half-smile, and ignored the muttered comment from someone close to him about how having an elf here would get them all arrested if the Templars happened to stop by. "We're going to go round the table and we can introduce ourselves and which course we do," he said, still smiling. He'd probably heard the sentiments though. "I know a couple of you already know each other, and I know a couple from last year." Joy of joys. An introductory game. After primary school, Arelos had been hoping that he would never have to encounter these again. No such luck, however.

"I'm Garrett, I'm a professor, and I teach History, specialising in magical history," the man said. Arelos had heard of him as basically a revolutionary making calls for revolution in his lectures. He seemed pretty moderate here, and nice.

They went slowly around the small circle of people, and each one of them was taking a fairly predictable course. It was all History and Magical Theory and half of them just didn't seem like interesting people. He was starting to wonder if there was any way to get away before it was his turn.

And then, perhaps five seconds before it would have been unacceptably awkward for him not to start introducing himself, the door burst open and an almost irritatingly stylish man walked in. Arelos' saving grace, it seemed, although he did wonder why his saving grace had to look so...camp. "I'm sorry, am I late?" He asked. Arelos was pretty sure every damned fleck of light in the world was reflecting off that grin. "Is everyone late? I'll revise my statement, I'm not sorry. This looks very sad." The man strode over to the table, settling himself in the seat next to Arelos. His presence seemed to demand everyone's attention somehow, and now, he certainly had it. Arelos was pretty sure that accent was from Tevinter. Upper class Tevinter.

"We were just going around introducing ourselves," Garrett said. He somehow still had his composure. Arelos wanted to know how he did it, because he could use that kind of composure when talking to humans.

"Ah. How dull. My name's Dorian Pavus, that's all you need to know, even though I'm sure you're all brimming with questions." He sat back, kicking his feet up and resting them on the edge of the table. "What's this society all about, then?"

"It's an activism group," he said. Arelos could see the impeccably put together neutral face start to crack. He'd be really annoyed if someone came into his activist group and started acting like this. "I know- I can see you're not from Ferelden, but-"

"I'm from big scary Tevinter," Dorian said, waving his arms around in a way that was meant to parody looking dramatic but just looked silly. "Ooooooh." Arelos loved this guy. He was definitely irritating their professor now, which wasn't so great, but at least thanks to Dorian he didn't have to awkwardly introduce himself. And finally, there was someone else in the group who wasn't a Ferelden human mage.

"I am one of three mage members of faculty across the whole university," Garrett said, and Dorian stopping waving his arms around and grinning. "There is me, one of two Magical Theory professors, and one of three Elven History professors. Out of all the people working in the clinic, in cleaning, in security, in the canteen, only twenty are mages."

"You're joking," Dorian said. He didn't sound so confident anymore. He didn't sound so full of himself or pleased or anything. He just sounded surprised.

"No, I am not joking. It's a systemic flaw that is consistently overlooked. There aren't nearly enough mages working in this university compared to how much of the student body they make up." Garrett sounded very serious, and Dorian had now taking his feet off the table and was just looking vaguely contrite. "It's not just here that this is a problem. Across Ferelden, the Free Marches, Antiva, the Anderfels, it's everywhere. In Tevinter, mages dominate society even if they aren't the majority. Mages make up about five percent of all people, yet still we have not had a mage in any major governmental posts. Ever."

"What are we supposed to do about it?" That was a reasonable question for him to ask, Arelos thought. They were a small collection of students, some of whom weren't even out of their teens. They were hardly ready to go about taking on the government.

Everyone turned to look at him and he could tell they were judging him, but he wasn't going to back down in front of a bunch of humans. "Generally, we put up posters, go to protests as a group so we're safer, and coordinate with similar societies across the continent." He wanted to say how that clearly wasn't working, since there had been mage societies around for years and so far nothing had changed, but more attention on him was really not what he needed. He slid down in his seat a little, and just nodded. "We'll continue with our introductions, then," Garrett said. "Thank you for coming, Dorian, I imagine you'll have a unique perspective." And now everyone was looking to him to say something again. He was really starting to think this wasn't where he wanted to be.

"My name's Arelos, I'm in my second year studying Elven History," he said, knowing that they were all thinking the same thing. Typical. There was a small chorus of muttering amongst the humans, although Arelos was glad to notice that Dorian refrained from it. Maybe someone here didn't absolutely hate him, then.

The people combined introducing themselves, no one saying anything too out there except one person who was apparently studying religion. It seemed a little too ironic to study a religion that had justified the oppression of mages for years and formed the nature of their oppression to this day. When that was done, Garrett led them in a discussion about what they all thought would be the best way to go forwards and create a 'more equal future'. Arelos had a dozen ideas, mostly involving not treating the elves like shit, but he kept them quiet.

"I think a large issue is money," he said when asked. He was pretty sure Garrett asked to gain the perspective of an elf, but he wouldn't give the other members of the group the satisfaction of something like that. "When I was growing up, any money my parents could spare went in to paying fees for Templar 'protection' and things to help me with magic. Most people's families just can't afford to sustain a normal life when they have magic, and that hampers our ability to achieve."

That, it seemed, was a good point that no one had been expecting him to make. There was a moment of silence before people started mumbling grudging agreements and then small debates sprung up around the table. Dorian leaned in close to speak to him- perhaps a little too close. "Nice one...you shouldn't be afraid to speak up about elves, though. Fight for what's in your heart."

He smiled at him, hoping no one would hear the response except him. "But I was talking about elves, it's just a common problem." There were only a handful of magic issues that were unique to elves and they mostly centred around the Dalish clans.

"True. You're clever, I'll give you that. I like clever." The smirk on Dorian's face to accompany those words was more than enough to make Arelos blush, and he was rather glad that Garrett called the society's attention back to him at that point. This was going to be an interesting afternoon, he could already tell that much.


End file.
